Chef Lauren's Chicken Parmigiana

This is one of my daughters' specialties. She started making it back when she was at Harbor High School in Santa Cruz and had a column in the newspaper called "Chef Lauren's Cooking Corner". Later on, after college, she made it for our family. During that time, she was living at home and commuting 45 minutes a day to work at Stanford. I still can't believe she had the energy to cook for us. But, you see, I was very sick at the time and often couldn't cook due to exhaustion. She did it, with the Lord's help, for me and for her dad. A labor of love... cooking at its best.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C finely chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced very fine
Olive Oil cooking spray
3 C peeled, seeded chopped tomato (ok, you really don't have to peel it)
1 1/2 t dried oregano leaves
1 t basil leaves
1/2 t ground pepper
1/4 t salt
4 4-oz boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 C flour
1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 C shredded mozzarella cheese

Spray a large saucepan with cooking spray, then turn the stove to low heat. Add onion and garlic; cover and cook for fifteen minutes, or until tender. Add tomato, oregano, basil, pepper and salt; simmer uncovered for forty-five minutes. Set aside.

Place each chicken breast half between two sheets of wax papper or heavy plastic wrap. Flatten with a mallet or a rolling pin until 1/8 inch thick. In a shallow dish, like a pie pan, combine flour and parmesan cheese. Dip each piece of chicken in egg white and put it in the shallow dish. Make sure the flour mixture covers both sides of the chicken breasts. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add each piece of chicken. Cool five minutes on each side, or until browned. Place the chicken in a large baking dish.

Pour tomato mixture (or pasta sauce) evenly over the chicken and sprinkle with mozzarella and any left-over Parmesan you may have. Bake, uncovered, in the oven at 350 degrees for about twenty minutes, or until thoroughly heated. Serve on a bed of pasta or by itself with fresh, hot French bread and a fresh, crunchy salad.

Note: It is always best to use fresh tomatoes to make the topping for the chicken because it's full of vitamins. However, if you want something easy, use a pre-made pasta sauce such as "Ragu" instead of the fresh tomato mixture. Still good!